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10/13/2010

Squashing Tony's negligence, from a mom who knows the danger all too well

by Jeremy Hooper

There's been a bit of a make-good from The Washington Post, following the fallout from the paper's careless decision to run Tony Perkins' factually-challenged propaganda without insight or pushback. Late yesterday afternoon, they posted a response piece penned by Sirdeaner Walker, the mother of an 11-year-old son (Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover) who took his own life after enduring anti-gay harassment and bullying. A snip:

I am a single mother and a devout Christian who had never been involved in advocacy work or politics. After my son died, and GLSEN reached out to me, some of my friends and family members expressed concern about the organization's work to address anti-gay bullying in school. They voiced religious opposition to GLSEN. Thanks to Tony Perkins' On Faith piece published yesterday, I don't have to repeat the arguments. Perkins' lays them all out practically word for word.

And they're all wrong.

*KEEP READING: Addressing anti-LGBT bullying: something all Christians can support [WaPo]

Obviously a good decision from WaPo. But still, going back to yesterday: The media has got to stop this nonsense that allows people like Perkins, a proud swimmer in the pool of his own convenience rather than in the ocean of factuality, to have a platform to write up his own agenda as if it's an equally-footed point of view. It's simply not (*extensive reasoning why it's not can be found here).

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
— Daniel Patrick Moynihan
***

**UPDATE, 10/14: GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios pens a strong piece: There are not "both sides" to teen suicide issue [WaPo]

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